True short story There were two men in the café at the table next to mine. One was younger, one was older. They could have been father...

Appropriate Punctuation One should really, at the very least, when writing about the ancient, august, and storied university town of...

Chapter One He'd made a life: a marriage and a nest of rooms. But happiness? What could he possibly make of that? They were just back...

"There once was a writer called Joyce" When The Poetry of James Joyce Reconsidered (edited by Mark C. Connor) was published by the...

Surname I hold open doors for old ladies. I never pick up pennies or the occasional dollar in the street. I tell my older sister Nan and...

Laura: an attempt Laura had all but given up on comic books when she came upon the first volume of Cain's Opus 133 series in Close...

I am six years old. I am hurrying, with my mother and my step-dad, John, towards the train station. John carries our clothes in a...

Dirty Work The room had the fungal smell of damp towels and old sweat. Cigarette ash, too, souring the air. It was a dark morning. Penny...

Publishing J.D. Salinger is a minefield. Attempting to publish him without permission is a bit like running into No Man's Land while...

The Little Girl Who Learned How to Fly A bird kept alighting on the windowsill and pecking the panes with its beak, brushing the glass...

Photograph by Pádraig Grant I am in Wexford now, in the southeast of Ireland, in a house close to the sea in Ballyconnigar Upper, or...

I am three years old. My mother, Grace, is pushing me along the long road into my shipbuilding hometown on the west coast of Scotland.  I...

Que Sera Sera I followed them from gig to gig. I travelled to Leeds and Manchester and Liverpool and all the way down to London. I stood...

But Not For Me Julian leant back in his chair. He steepled his fingers and looked thoughtful, smiling at the interviewer. He said,...

An Earthquake Story Having landed in the world at a short distance in time from each other, they were now both able to get around on...

I Want You Back It happened soon after that. The second gig, the one in Desmond's college, had been arranged for January. We were at the...

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) I once saw a picture in Julian's bedroom of Julian's mother, taken at a wedding. Strictly speaking, it...

White Collar Thirty seconds into the seventh bout of the card, after the usual stalling and flailing, a clean blow unambiguously connects...

Interlude Now he is huge, of course. Look at him: he’s all affect. You can hardly see him, what with the stark circle of light around...

Henrietta Bound We were twelve when Henrietta first asked me to bind her. To prevent the growth, she said. I didn't know what she meant,...

Money It was ridiculous. Suddenly there was a new microphone, a fender bass and brand new cymbals. Julian was going to Vidal Sassoon....

The Love of Fire The little girl had left dinner. The intricate conversation did not concern her. She had escaped easily, like a dog...

Future Excuses Towards the end of his life Ernst K Hoffmann, the finest theoretical physicist of his generation, could not stand the...

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself That week, they called a meeting at La Cage Aux Pizza. I would have called it, usually, and it...